“I don’t think it’s to appear to be healthy, it’s purely a style statement,” Tokyo-based French fashion designer Julien David said of activewear’s rise in the country. “The biggest shift in Kawaii is ...

McDonald's recently announced a new collaboration with one of the country's newest anime mascots. Instead of Hello Kitty or Pompompurin, the Japanese branch of America's favorite fast-food chain is ...

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or ...

On social media feeds all over the world, puppies experience hiccups for the first time, hamsters eat tiny tacos and cats befriend monkeys. And they do it a lot. Kawaii is inescapable in Japan, where ...

Kawaii. You hear it in anime, you hear it on TV shows, and you hear it on the streets of Japan, where the word is spoken by young and old alike. With people around the world growing up on Japanese ...

Japan has ambassadors to more than 150 countries. Earlier this year, the Foreign Ministry appointed three more – "kawaii" (cute) ambassadors whose job is to travel abroad to introduce Japanese pop ...

To the outside observer, the "yami kawaii" subculture of Japanese fashion can be unsettling, disturbing. It brings together the cute pinks and pastels of more mainstream "kawaii culture," but then ...

Alongside "photobomb", one of the new words added to the Collins English dictionary this week was "kawaii". Yet unlike photobomb, selfie or onesie, you're unlikely to know what kawaii means unless you ...

It’s no secret that Japan is seriously into cuteness. Accordingly, in most situations, deeming something kawaii, or cute, is seen as high praise. This is especially true when it comes to women.

Alongside "photobomb", one of the new words added to the Collins English dictionary this week was "kawaii". Yet unlike photobomb, selfie or onesie, you're unlikely to know what kawaii means unless you ...

Providing an in-depth overview of all things kawaii (cute), this book traces the cute aesthetic from its inception in the 1970s as a schoolgirl trend to its position as a leading cultural norm, and ...